Stevens Point, Wis.
An officer in the Army Reserve was arrested at his Wisconsin home last week and charged with rigging bids and stealing reconstruction money while working with the now-dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. According to court papers, the officer, Lt. Col. Michael Brian Wheeler, accepted money and gifts to help steer $13 million in reconstruction contracts to an American businessman, Philip Bloom. Bloom and a former CPA official, Robert Stein Jr., were arrested last month. The men were also accused of smuggling stolen CPA money into the U.S., and using it to buy machine guns, grenade launchers, and other military grade weapons for their own use.
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